In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011)

At the age of 11, journalist and TV producer Fatima Jebli Ouazzani and her parents emigrated from Morocco to the Netherlands. Seven years later, her father left her mother and married a 17-year-old Moroccan girl. Fatima knew one thing for sure: she would not allow herself to be married off like her mother and grandmother, so she broke with Moroccan tradition and moved out of her family’s home. In this film, the director, unmarried and childless, wonders whether she has made the right choices. She places her own history against the background of traditional Moroccan marriage. That is what Naima, a Moroccan girl who was born in Holland, has opted for. On her wedding night, Naima has to prove she is still a virgin. By tradition, the in-laws wait outside the bedroom to see the bloodstained sheets.